Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Fishing as a hobby appeals to groups of all ages. You can fish for sport, hobby or you can catch fish to eat. But The best part of fishing is that it is a chance to enjoy the out-doors. Beside you can learn about patience, relaxing, and how to enjoy nature, it is also a great way to spend time with family or friends (depend on who you are going with).

Beautiful background of Alam Endah Fishpond - Padalarang

A good place to start fishing is in small lakes or ponds. Even tho I prefer to fish on the sea. When I was kid, fishing was something interesting me as long not using worm as the bait :p My family lived across the sea so there was a chance to go fishing with my sister and friends even tho mostly just on the sea side wall. We did catch lots of fishes :p but it didn't makes me a pro fishing lol. By the way, It takes lots of practice to become good at casting. Make sure that no one is standing near you to get caught by the hook when you are casting. Don't catch your friend with a hook! lol.

Pretty big fishpond at Alam Endah restaurant and fishpond

I had chance to fish with my friends at Alam Endah Fishpond after my Sunday Market sell. It also has restaurant located in Padalarang (not far from Bandung). There are many choice of fishes you can catch; goldfish, nila (Nile Tilapia), catfish, and bawal. Every fish you catch is not allowed to throw it back to the pond.And take a look at my first catcht..! a goldfish :p

Woohoo.. My first catch, a goldfish .. more to go :p

But something happened to that goldfish and other 3 fishes. We put those fishes inside a net bag. Then late we realized if that net bag was broke and had big hole so those fishes could release. So we lost it all and had to start over again and got 4 fishes to bring it home.

Have fun and enjoy fishing, and don't forget to help to clean your catch-and enjoy eating it.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Cross-Stitch or in Indonesia more known as Strimin may be what you are looking for to spend your boring days and it is simple enough to finish in any time. Usually most of people would say, cross-stitch is for old people lol.Hey .. so what! this is fun :p

According to Wiki, Cross-stitch is a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture. Cross-stitch is usually executed on easily countable evenweave fabric. The stitcher counts the threads in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. This form of cross-stitch is also called counted cross-stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross-stitch. Sometimes cross-stitch is done on designs printed on the fabric (stamped cross-stitch); the stitcher simply stitches over the printed pattern.

Here I included some of cross-stitch products that I already finished (click to enlarge)

Sunset cross-stitch pattern (20 x 25cm) in a frame made of wood

Tweety cross-stitch pattern (20 x 25cm) in a frame made of wood

I just realized that I have another hobby that I really like. Making cross stitch. When someone asked me about my hobby, I never mentioned that I like to make cross stitch. And I just realized it few weeks ago when I started to make cross stitch again after long time. I learned to make it from my mom. It was also her hobby in her 30's as I remember. I used to watch her to make it and then I asked her to teach me. She was a good teacher for a young student like I was :p oh and my sister also able to make it and she enjoy it so much too as I do.

I couldn't remember what was the first pattern project I made. But till now I already made different kind of patterns such as landscapes, cartoon figures, animals, flowers etc and different kind of size. For a big size of pattern, I made it together with my sister so would not take much longer to fisnish it. All the cross-stitch I made (or with my sis) are used for personal as a decoration at home or a gift.

White puppy cross-stitch pattern (20 x 25cm) in a frame made of wood

Currently I really in the mood to make this cross-stitch again. But now beside to make it as a hobby I would like to do it for a business too. Perhaps someone would like to buy it :p So I don't need to hang all of it every inches on the wall at home lol. For this, I have my friend - Trie - as a company to do this project. We sure have fun to do this :p

Unfinished cross-stitch project: sunset with a boat (20 x 25cm). Will finish it in a frame too.